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Dictionary
This page is a dictionary of terms relating to the pipe organ. Please keep definitions to a few sentences, and do not include pictures or sound clips. When more space is needed for a term, a new page can be created for it. This page will eventually need to be broken up by letter. A Antiphonal noun a division placed at a distance from the rest of the organ; usually a Floating Division. Usually contains loud ranks that can compete with the volume of the Main Organ. Contrast "Echo Division" Armature Valve Audsley, George Ashdown Austin Organ Company B Bach, Johann Sebastian 1685-1750 - arguably the most important composer of organ music. Backfall Backfall Bridge Balanced Action Barker Lever Beard Bearing Shaft Beating Reed noun a reed or reed pipe in which the reed (tongue) beats against the shallot. Synonym: Striking Reed. Compare with Free Reed. Bedos, Dom Bellows Bench Block noun 1. the portion of a wooden flue pipe at the base, to which the sides and cap are fastened, and in which the windway is usually cut. 2. the portion of a reed pipe into which the shallot, tongue, wedge, and resonator are fitted, and over which the boot fits; commonly made of lead. Blockwerk Blower noun a device for creating the wind (compressed air) on which an organ speaks. Body noun the portion of a flue pipe above the block or languid. Bombarde noun 1. a chorus reed of powerful tone. 2. a division that includes powerful chorus reeds. Bombardenwerk Boot noun - a hollow removable shell that covers the tongue and shallot of a reed pipe, fits over the block, and includes the toe which rests on the windchest. Bore Borrowed adjective - a term used to describe a stop with no pipes of its own, which uses pipes from another stop. The two stops are typically at the same pitch but played from different keyboards, otherwise the term "Unification" is usually used. Borstwerk Bottom-board noun a board which forms the bottom (or a portion thereof) of a wind chest, often removable for maintenance. Boutique Bovenwerk Bridge Brustpositiv Brustwerk Brødrene Torkildsen — Norwegian organ building firm. Bung Button Buxtehude, Dietrich C Cap Capture System noun a type of combination action which can "capture" the current registration and store it for later recall via a piston or toe stud. Case Casework Cavaille-Coll, Aristide - an important French organ-builder of the 19th century. Celeste noun - an organ stop which is tuned slightly off-pitch so as to produce a tremulant or vibrato effect; some such stops include both a normally-tuned rank and one or more off-pitch ranks. Chamber Channel Chest noun - short for "Wind Chest". Chiff Chimney noun a tube surmounting the tops of certain types of stopped flue pipes, markedly smaller in diameter than the body of the pipe. Choir noun a division of an organ intended for accompanying a vocal choir. It is found only on organs of three or more manuals, and is usually played from the lowest keyboard on the console. Chorus Reed Chromatic Chest noun a windchest on which the pipes are placed chromatically. Compare with Diatonic Chest. Cinema Organ noun - see Theatre Organ. Clicquot, Francois-Henri Closed Closed Shallot Combination Action noun a system for storing registrations and recalling them at the touch of a piston or toe stud. Common Metal (see Hoyt Metal) Compass noun a specification of the lowest and highest notes on a keyboard. Modern manual compass is 61 notes, C to C; modern pedal compass is 32 notes, C to G. Many other compasses have been used historically. Composition Pedal Compound Stop noun - an organ stop in which two or more pipes are used for each note. This includes Celestes and Mixtures. Concave Concussion Bellows Cone Cone Chest Console noun the portion of an organ containing the keyboards, stop controls, and other controls used by the organist during performance. Consoles may be attached to the organ case or placed some distance from it; an electric action console may be moveable. Couperin, Francois Coupler noun a device that connects pairs of keys so that when one key is depressed, the other is played. This connection may be mechanical or electric. Crescendo Pedal Cut-Up noun the distance between the lower and upper lips of a flue pipe, usually expressed as a fraction of the width of the pipe's mouth. D Diaphone Diatonic Chest DIRECT-ELECTRIC® Action noun - The trademark name of the electro-mechanical action developed by John Wick in 1914 and used by Wicks Organ Company of Highland, Illinois. This is the first electro-mechanical action developed and patened. While the patent has expired, the term "DIRECT-ELECTRIC®" is trademarked and refers only the the chest action as manufactured by Wicks Organ Company. Disc Divided Stop - a stop activated by two drawknobs, one for the treble pipes and another for the bass pipes, allowing either or both parts to be used independantly. Division - A number of ranks of pipes which are played from the same keyboard or couplers, and are usually located together in the same part of the organ. For example:The Swell keyboard plays the pipes of the Swell Division, and the Swell division can also be played from the Great keyboard via a coupler. Divisional Piston noun - a piston on an organ console which can only be programmed to turn on or off stops within one division. Compare with "General Piston". Drawknob Duplex Action Duplex Chest Duplexing Dupre, Marcel E Ear Echo - A descriptive included in a stop name to indicate a softer tone and smaller pipes or lower wind pressure than usual for such a rank, which differences are intended to produce a sound as if from a distance. Example: "Echo Flute", "Echo Viol" Echo Division - A division, often found in Romantic or Orchestral style organs, which contains soft or etherial-toned stops, and located at the far end of the room from the Main Organ.Contrast "Antiphonal Division" Echowerk Electrification noun - the process of converting a mechanical or tubular-pneumatic action to some form of electric or electro-pneumatic action. Electro-Pneumatic English Swell Erben, Henry Estey Exhaust Valve Exhaust-Pneumatic Expression Pedal noun - see "Swell Pedal". Extension noun - a stop in which most of the pipes are borrowed from another stop; typically at a higher or lower octave.Example: when the Gedeckt 4' uses the same pipes as the Gedeckt 8', adding a higher top octave. F Facade Fan Tremulant Feeder Fernwerk noun - German term for the English "Antiphonal." Filled-In Shallot Flat Flexible Wind Floating Division - A group of stops that has no regular keyboard from which it is played, but which can be played from any keyboard via couplers. Typically found in large instruments with electrical actions. Example:an "Echo Division" on an organ with only Swell, Great, and Choir keyboards Flue noun a type of organ pipe which produces sound in the manner of a whistle (fipple flute). Foot noun the portion of a flue pipe between the mouth and the toe, of inverted conical shape in all but the smallest pipes. Free Reed noun a reed or reed pipe in which the reed (tongue) vibrates within an opening, but does not beat against it. Compare with Beating Reed. Examples of free reeds are those used in: the accordion, the harmonica and the harmonium or "reed organ". Frein Harmonique Fulcrum G General noun - short for "General Piston". General Cancel noun - a piston on an organ console which turns off all the stops. General Piston noun - a piston on an organ console which can be programmed to turn on or off any stop on the organ. Compare with "Divisional Piston". Great - The division containing the main loud chorus stops, especially of Diapasons at several pitches, and usually visible at the front of the Main Organ case.In English and American three-manual consoles it is played from the middle keyboard. In two-manual consoles the Great keyboard is the lower one. Grille Groove Groove Valve H Halve Halving Ratio noun - a measure of the number of pipes (semitones) between one pipe and another of exactly half its diameter. This number is typically in the neighborhood of 17. Harmonic adjective a pipe, rank or stop whose pipes are twice as long as for a normal open pipe. Harmonic Bridge Harris, Renatus Haskell Haskelling Hauptwerk Hinterwerk Hoofdwerk Hook, E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings Hope-Jones, Robert Hoyt Metal - Common Metal; a high-lead-content sheet with a tin "washcoat" to give it a shiny appearance. (Richard Schneider; in Mechanical Music Digest, 1998) Hydraulis I Impost Inter-manual Coupler noun a coupler which operates on two manuals. Intra-manual Coupler noun a coupler which operates on a single manual; e.g. an Octave Coupler or Sub-Octave Coupler. Inverted Languid J K Kegellade Chest Key Key Action noun the parts of an organ consisting of the keys and their connections to the wind chests. Key Channel Key Pin Keyboard Keydesk Kimball Kronpositiv Kronwerk L Ladegast, Friedrich Languid Lead Leather Leathering * Lefébure-Wely, Louis James Alfred (1817–1869) — French organist and composer. Preceded Widor as organist of the Saint Sulpice, Paris. Lower Lip Lower Rib M Magnet Mandrel noun - a wooden or metal cylinder or cone used for forming pipe metal into shape for making organ pipes. Manometer noun a device for measuring wind pressure, consisting of a U-shaped tube partly full of water. The wind pressure is measured by the displacement of the water by the wind. Manual noun a keyboard played with the hands. Mechanical Action Mid-Frame Mitre Mixture Moller, M. P. Monkey Quint Motor Mouth noun the open area of a flue pipe framed by the upper lip and lower lips, which are usually considered to be part of the mouth. The width of the mouth is usually expressed as a fraction of the pipe's circumference. Mutation noun - an organ stop that speaks at a pitch other than unison or octave. This term is sometimes used to include 1' stops as well. N Nebenwerk Neo-Classic Nick noun one of a set of small notches cut into the languid of a flue pipe. Nick verb the action of applying nicking to a pipe. Nicking noun a set of small notches cut into the languid of a flue pipe. Non-Return Valve O Oberwerk Octave Coupler Octopod noun - a somewhat derogatory colloquialism used to describe organs with few (if any) stops at any pitch other than 8', typically from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Offset Chest Open adjective a pipe which is open at the end not resting on the windchest. Compare with Stopped. Organ P Pallet Pallet Box Pallet Spring Pedal Pedalboard noun a set of keys that are played with the feet. Pedalwerk Pilcher Pipe noun - short for "organ pipe". Pipe Maker noun - a person or firm who makes organ pipes. Piston noun - a small cylindrical button located (typically in groups) between the manuals of an organ console. These usually operate the Combination Action. See also "Toe Stud". Pitman Pitman Chest Pneumatic Polyphonic Pipe Portative Positiv Positive Pouch Praetorius, Michael Pressure Pneumatic Primary Primary Motor Pull-Down Q Quint noun - a generic term for any stop or rank which speaks at an interval of a 5th above any octave pitch. R Radiating Rank Ratio Rauschwerk Reed noun 1. a type of organ pipe in which the sound is produced by a vibrating metal reed or tongue. 2. the part of a reed pipe which vibrates and creates the sound; more properly known as the Tongue. Regal Regulation Reservoir Resonator Resultant Reversible Rib Rocker Rohrwerk Roller Roller Arm Roller Beard Roller-Board Ruckpositiv Rugwerk S Sauer, Wilhelm Scale Scaling Ratio Schlick, Arnolt Schnitger, Arp Schwellwerk Schwimmer Secondary Motor Setter Button Shade Shallot Shoe Shutter Silbermann, Gottfried Skinner, Ernest M. - an important American organ builder of the early 20th century. Slider Slider Chest Slider-And-Pallet Chest Slot Smith, "Father" Bernard Solo Solo Reed Solowerk Soundboard Spotted Metal noun an alloy of tin and lead commonly used to make organ pipes, so called because the metal has a spotted appearance due to the crystalline structure of the alloy. Spring Spring Chest Square Stick Organ noun - a derogatory colloquialism used to refer to mechanical action organs. Sticker noun a component of a mechanical key action which transmits motion through pressure. Stop Stop Action Stop Jamb Stop Tab Stopped adjective a term used to describe an organ pipe whose free end is closed. Compare with open. Stopper Striking Reed noun - see "Beating Reed". Sub-Octave Coupler Suspended Action Swell Swell Box Swell Pedal Swell Shade Swell Shutter T Tab Table Tannenberg, David Temperament Terraced Console Theatre Organ Throat Tin Toe noun - the portion of an organ pipe which rests on the windchest; usually made of lead. Toe Hole noun the hole in the bottom of the foot of a pipe, through which wind enters the pipe. Toe Stud Toeboard noun the part of a windchest on which the feet of the pipes rest. Tonal Finishing Tone Tongue noun the part of a reed pipe which vibrates and creates the sound; a strip of brass which is slightly curved in just exactly the right shape. Top-board Touch-Box Tower Tracker noun 1. a long, thin piece of wood used in a mechanical key action to transmit motion through tension. 2. Abbreviation for "tracker organ". Tracker Action Tracker Organ noun an organ with tracker (mechanical) action. Transient Tremblant Doux Tremblant Fort Tremulant noun a device for inducing a tremolo into the speech of pipes, usually by causing the wind pressure to fluctuate (but see Fan Tremulant). Trundle Tube Tubular-Pneumatic Tuning Slide Tuning Wire noun - a wire projecting upwards from the block of a reed pipe, which controls how much of the tongue is allowed to vibrate. This wire is used in the tuning and regulation of reed pipes. U Unification Unit Chest noun - a type of wind chest in which each pipe has its own electric or electro-pneumatic valve. Universal Wind Chest noun - a type of wind chest patented by the Austin Organ Company, characterized by being large enough to walk inside for maintenance, even with the wind on. Unterwerk Upper Lip Upper Rib V Valvular Reed Ventil Vierne, Louis Voicing noun - the art, craft and science of making all the pipes in the organ speak properly. Voicer noun - a person who voices organ pipes. Voicers often specialize in either reed pipes or flue pipes. W Wedge Bellows Weight Well Werck Werkprinzip Widor, Charles-Marie Willis, Henry Wind noun the compressed air on which the pipes of an organ speak. Wind Pressure Wind Trunk Windchest Windway Winker Wurlitzer X Y Z Zinc